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Five Future Strategies You Need Right Now
It's easy to miss many innovations in strategy until they appear on the front page of a major business publication. But by then everyone--including all your competitors--is using them.
As a CEO or senior executive, your job is to detect these strategies?and implement them--before your competitors.
That's where this book comes in.
Author George Stalk has often been called a guru of business strategy. In the 1980s, before anyone else saw its importance, he and his colleagues at The Boston Consulting Group developed the concept of time-based how meeting the needs of your customers faster than your competitors can give you an unassailable advantage.
In this Memo to the CEO, Stalk discusses five strategies that have not yet become widely practiced but are nonetheless worthy of your attention now. He offers advice on how to identify and manage them while they still present opportunities to jump ahead of the competition. They
Addressing supply chain deficiencies
One example of a supply chain crisis is the growing lack of West Coast port capacity. Stalk reviews the strategic implications of this problem, reveals its impact, and recommends specific courses of action.
Sidestepping economies of scale
Many business leaders are reexamining their assumptions about the benefits of scale. Scaling down, not up, and building "disposable factories" and even "disposable strategies" are becoming new keys to lowering costs and boosting performance.
Profiting from dynamic pricing
Today, using real-time data, it is increasingly possible to match the price of your product or service with the immediate, second-by-second needs of the customer.
Embracing complexity
Simplicity is the mantra of the day. But with examples from a few leading-edge companies, Stalk shows that embracing complexity can achieve competitive advantage.
Utilizing infinite bandwidth
In a world of infinite bandwidth, companies that know how to take advantage of it become more productive, efficient, and profitable, and create entirely new businesses along the way.
Written in a refreshingly clear, concise format, Five Future Strategies You Need Right Now is filled with actionable ideas for seizing these emerging strategic opportunities.
As a CEO or senior executive, your job is to detect these strategies?and implement them--before your competitors.
That's where this book comes in.
Author George Stalk has often been called a guru of business strategy. In the 1980s, before anyone else saw its importance, he and his colleagues at The Boston Consulting Group developed the concept of time-based how meeting the needs of your customers faster than your competitors can give you an unassailable advantage.
In this Memo to the CEO, Stalk discusses five strategies that have not yet become widely practiced but are nonetheless worthy of your attention now. He offers advice on how to identify and manage them while they still present opportunities to jump ahead of the competition. They
Addressing supply chain deficiencies
One example of a supply chain crisis is the growing lack of West Coast port capacity. Stalk reviews the strategic implications of this problem, reveals its impact, and recommends specific courses of action.
Sidestepping economies of scale
Many business leaders are reexamining their assumptions about the benefits of scale. Scaling down, not up, and building "disposable factories" and even "disposable strategies" are becoming new keys to lowering costs and boosting performance.
Profiting from dynamic pricing
Today, using real-time data, it is increasingly possible to match the price of your product or service with the immediate, second-by-second needs of the customer.
Embracing complexity
Simplicity is the mantra of the day. But with examples from a few leading-edge companies, Stalk shows that embracing complexity can achieve competitive advantage.
Utilizing infinite bandwidth
In a world of infinite bandwidth, companies that know how to take advantage of it become more productive, efficient, and profitable, and create entirely new businesses along the way.
Written in a refreshingly clear, concise format, Five Future Strategies You Need Right Now is filled with actionable ideas for seizing these emerging strategic opportunities.
- GenresBusinessNonfiction
120 pages, Hardcover
First published January 29, 2008
3 people are currently reading
58 people want to read
About the author
George Stalk Jr.
9 books11 followersGeorge Stalk Jr. is Senior Partner and Managing Director for The Boston Consulting Group as well as an Adjunct Professor of Strategic Management for the Rotman School of Management at University of Toronto. He joined BCG in 1978 and has worked in its Boston, Chicago, Tokyo and Toronto offices. His professional practice focuses on international and time-based competition. He holds a BSEM from the University of Michigan, an MSA&AE MIT and MBA from Harvard Business School. George Stalk Jr. co-authored a best-seller on “time-based” competition, Competing Against Time, and Kaisha: The Japanese Corporation. A somewhat controversial book, Hardball: Are You Playing to Play or to Playing to Win? was published in October of 2004. George Stalk Jr.’s latest book: Memos to the CEO: Strategies in Our Future was published in early 2008. He has also been published in several business publications, including the Harvard Business Review where he has won the McKinsey Award for the best article.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 25, 2008
Five Future Strategies You Need Right Now
George Stalk
Harvard Business Press
This is one of the titles in the "Memo to the CEO" series published by Harvard Business Press, each less than 200 pages in length and superbly produced. In fact, none is a "memo" or written solely for a CEO. In this volume, George Stalk explains how to become alert to "faint signals" of what could prove to be early indicators of possible opportunities to gain competitive advantages. Once those opportunities have been verified (Stalk suggests how to do that), appropriate strategies to exploit them will be needed. He focuses on five examples of strategies whose "sources of advantage are not only abundantly clear, but undeniable": supply-chain gymnastics (i.e. adroitly managing a global supply chain), sidestepping economics of scale (i.e. a "disposability" business model), embracing complexity (i.e. four ways to attract customers who are looking for a higher level of complexity), and infinite bandwidth (i.e. effortless receipt of any amount of information whenever and wherever desired and at no cost).
Stalk offers "a high-level introduction to each of these emerging issues, along with suggestions for how to turn them into competitive advantage." He devotes a separate chapter to each of the five categories, then in the final chapter shifts his attention to examples of potential strategies that are "no more than faint signals today," identifies two emerging strategies on his "Watch List" awaiting further evidence of their potential to create competitive advantage, and then briefly discusses various "hallucinations" for which there are currently no corporate examples but are "worth pondering" nonetheless. But Stalk doesn't limit the narrative to what he has observed and tracked. He reassures his reader that other faint signals "are likely to be found in the world around you," in the reader's own competitive environment as well as beyond it to other industries and competitors to spot insights of others "who may have found a new way of operating and competing that can be transplanted into [her or his] industry to the great confusion of others...and then `plagiarize' the idea." Or when coming across an anomaly, to "understand its implications and use the insight to drive the business to new levels of performance."
Globality: Competing with Everyone from Everywhere for Everything
Hal Sirkin, Jim Hemerling, and Arindam Bhattacharya
Business Plus
With regard to the title, Sirkin, Hemerling, and Bhattacharya explain that "globality [is] the name for a new and different reality in which we'll all be competing with everyone, from everywhere, for everything." In a global business environment that Thomas Friedman characterizes as having become "flat," it is also possible (albeit theoretically) for companies to forge a strategic alliance with anyone, anywhere. They go on to suggest that as a new era emerges, "we call it globality, a different kind of environment, in which business flows in every direction. Companies have no centers. The idea of foreignness is foreign. Commerce swirls and market dominance shifts. Western business orthodoxy entwines with eastern business philosophy and creates a whole new mind-set that embraces profit and competition as well as sustainability and collaboration. Globality is a blockbuster new script - action, drama, suspense, and road picture all packed into one - with a sprawling cast of characters and locations in every corner of the world."
The authors explain why and how a "tsunami" wave of competition from global challengers (i.e. rapidly developing companies) has risen up and challenged established players, what they call "incumbents." In fact, developed companies now find themselves struggling to compete successfully in terms of cost differentials; "growing people" and then positioning them in proper alignment; market penetration; "pinpointing" (i.e. connecting with customers, distributing complexity, and reinventing the business model); rapid growth (by scaling up, building brands, filling capability gaps, and bartering); innovating with ingenuity; and embracing "manyness" (i.e. many countries, economies, markets, locations, and facilities but no centers, no home markets, no foreignness, or hierarchy of location). New mind-sets are needed if incumbents are to respond effectively to these and other challenges.
When concluding their book, Sirkin, Hemerling, and Bhattacharya assert (and I wholly agree) that however much the global business community has changed and will continue to change, the measures of success will remain essentially the same. Business leaders will continue to think about their place in the world, about sustainability and scarce resources. Those whom the co-authors interviewed "always talk about their dreams. They speak about people they have known, in their factories and boardrooms, retail outlets, and warehouses. They talk about their companies as if they were families. Above all, they say they want their personal and professional lives to be meaningful and rich journeys. They want to build something. And they want it to endure." Meanwhile, the "tsunami" continues to surge....
George Stalk
Harvard Business Press
This is one of the titles in the "Memo to the CEO" series published by Harvard Business Press, each less than 200 pages in length and superbly produced. In fact, none is a "memo" or written solely for a CEO. In this volume, George Stalk explains how to become alert to "faint signals" of what could prove to be early indicators of possible opportunities to gain competitive advantages. Once those opportunities have been verified (Stalk suggests how to do that), appropriate strategies to exploit them will be needed. He focuses on five examples of strategies whose "sources of advantage are not only abundantly clear, but undeniable": supply-chain gymnastics (i.e. adroitly managing a global supply chain), sidestepping economics of scale (i.e. a "disposability" business model), embracing complexity (i.e. four ways to attract customers who are looking for a higher level of complexity), and infinite bandwidth (i.e. effortless receipt of any amount of information whenever and wherever desired and at no cost).
Stalk offers "a high-level introduction to each of these emerging issues, along with suggestions for how to turn them into competitive advantage." He devotes a separate chapter to each of the five categories, then in the final chapter shifts his attention to examples of potential strategies that are "no more than faint signals today," identifies two emerging strategies on his "Watch List" awaiting further evidence of their potential to create competitive advantage, and then briefly discusses various "hallucinations" for which there are currently no corporate examples but are "worth pondering" nonetheless. But Stalk doesn't limit the narrative to what he has observed and tracked. He reassures his reader that other faint signals "are likely to be found in the world around you," in the reader's own competitive environment as well as beyond it to other industries and competitors to spot insights of others "who may have found a new way of operating and competing that can be transplanted into [her or his] industry to the great confusion of others...and then `plagiarize' the idea." Or when coming across an anomaly, to "understand its implications and use the insight to drive the business to new levels of performance."
Globality: Competing with Everyone from Everywhere for Everything
Hal Sirkin, Jim Hemerling, and Arindam Bhattacharya
Business Plus
With regard to the title, Sirkin, Hemerling, and Bhattacharya explain that "globality [is] the name for a new and different reality in which we'll all be competing with everyone, from everywhere, for everything." In a global business environment that Thomas Friedman characterizes as having become "flat," it is also possible (albeit theoretically) for companies to forge a strategic alliance with anyone, anywhere. They go on to suggest that as a new era emerges, "we call it globality, a different kind of environment, in which business flows in every direction. Companies have no centers. The idea of foreignness is foreign. Commerce swirls and market dominance shifts. Western business orthodoxy entwines with eastern business philosophy and creates a whole new mind-set that embraces profit and competition as well as sustainability and collaboration. Globality is a blockbuster new script - action, drama, suspense, and road picture all packed into one - with a sprawling cast of characters and locations in every corner of the world."
The authors explain why and how a "tsunami" wave of competition from global challengers (i.e. rapidly developing companies) has risen up and challenged established players, what they call "incumbents." In fact, developed companies now find themselves struggling to compete successfully in terms of cost differentials; "growing people" and then positioning them in proper alignment; market penetration; "pinpointing" (i.e. connecting with customers, distributing complexity, and reinventing the business model); rapid growth (by scaling up, building brands, filling capability gaps, and bartering); innovating with ingenuity; and embracing "manyness" (i.e. many countries, economies, markets, locations, and facilities but no centers, no home markets, no foreignness, or hierarchy of location). New mind-sets are needed if incumbents are to respond effectively to these and other challenges.
When concluding their book, Sirkin, Hemerling, and Bhattacharya assert (and I wholly agree) that however much the global business community has changed and will continue to change, the measures of success will remain essentially the same. Business leaders will continue to think about their place in the world, about sustainability and scarce resources. Those whom the co-authors interviewed "always talk about their dreams. They speak about people they have known, in their factories and boardrooms, retail outlets, and warehouses. They talk about their companies as if they were families. Above all, they say they want their personal and professional lives to be meaningful and rich journeys. They want to build something. And they want it to endure." Meanwhile, the "tsunami" continues to surge....
February 25, 2013
Awesome|Fantastic|Must Read for MBAs, Managers| Strategy with Common Sense
George Stalk has been a part of the Boston Consulting Group(BCG) and has brought out his insights with real time examples adopted by companies. The 5 strategies he talks about viz.
1. Supply Chain Gymnastics
2. Side-stepping Economies
3. Dynamic Pricing
4. Embracing Complexity
5. Utilizing Infinite Bandwith
All these 5 strategies are to be adopted in this consumer centric environment of today. Although some of the companies have adopted one of these concepts into their business model, no one has yet tried implementing all the 5 together, which would give the perfect competitive advantage for the company.
This is a book which initiates thought process, and if you are looking for solutions, then this is not the book. And as far as strategy is concerned, solutions are useless as they are already in practice and do not differentiate you from others.
George Stalk has been a part of the Boston Consulting Group(BCG) and has brought out his insights with real time examples adopted by companies. The 5 strategies he talks about viz.
1. Supply Chain Gymnastics
2. Side-stepping Economies
3. Dynamic Pricing
4. Embracing Complexity
5. Utilizing Infinite Bandwith
All these 5 strategies are to be adopted in this consumer centric environment of today. Although some of the companies have adopted one of these concepts into their business model, no one has yet tried implementing all the 5 together, which would give the perfect competitive advantage for the company.
This is a book which initiates thought process, and if you are looking for solutions, then this is not the book. And as far as strategy is concerned, solutions are useless as they are already in practice and do not differentiate you from others.
December 11, 2014
Stalk is one of the smartest strategic business minds writing and consulting today. While his 'Five Future Strategies' were conceived some 15 years ago, this is a fun read now - because it shows how prescient he was. Even his 'faint signals' show up today as shaping enterprise.
Not as strong as Stalk's other books (Competing Against Time, and the best book on business strategy I have every read, Hardball) - but a worthwhile and accessible read that shows some people do see future trends very clearly.
Not as strong as Stalk's other books (Competing Against Time, and the best book on business strategy I have every read, Hardball) - but a worthwhile and accessible read that shows some people do see future trends very clearly.
March 29, 2013
A should-read book on executive ability in managing your career.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews